Foundation Father | M.A. Franklin Profile picture
Building a legacy for my future great-grandchildren, one day at a time. Household leadership, ancient wisdom, and home education. Visit https://t.co/YOibUIjTOk
Dennis Shanahan Profile picture Happy Warrior Profile picture John Smith⚛ (ananthropocentric purposivism) 🌎 Profile picture Eric Anderson Profile picture Apollo Jackson Profile picture 19 subscribed
Sep 18 13 tweets 2 min read
25 more sentences that may just change your life.

1. Read old books and you'll be more informed about current events than people who watch the latest news.

2. Weak men accuse good men and are useful stooges for bad men. 3. People are desperate to trust experts so they don't have to take responsibility for their own decisions.

4. Marriage is not choosing your wife, but choosing your wife every day.
Sep 16 13 tweets 2 min read
25 sentences that may just change your life.

1. All healthy marriages have a man who initiates and a woman who responds.

2. Twenty years from now, you'll realize 90% of the news you watched was false and that the other 10% never mattered. 3. Eventually, something is going to kill you, so you might as well be courageous on your way out.

4. Most men fail to be courageous because they have failed to build anything worth protecting.
Sep 15 9 tweets 2 min read
Plutarch, a Greek philosopher and essayist living in the first century AD, is known for his biographies of famous Greeks and Romans.

In one of his writings, Plutarch muses on the God of the Jews, and he attempts to draw comparisons with one of the Greek gods.

But which one? Image Many Christians today, if forced to make a choice, might see similarities with Apollo, a representation of reason and order.

And yet Plutarch draws a connection from the God of the Jews to Dionysus, the opposite of Apollo. What were his reasons?
Sep 10 4 tweets 1 min read
Education is warfare.

If you don't understand this, you just might lose your children.

The state pumps billions of dollars into public education. There are politicians in the pocket of the teacher's union.

Why spend so much blood and treasure on teaching kids? They spend so much because they want to create people in their own image, warriors who will fight for their version of "truth" and "beauty."

If they can't create a warrior in their own image, they'll settle for creating a passive stooge. The other side doesn't get a warrior.
Sep 9 9 tweets 2 min read
Playing video games as your main hobby is like watching p*rn to find your next date.

False dominion and fake women are two sides of the same coin. Young men enthralled in a half-life, hooked up to a steady drip of dopamine.

No real dominion. No real fruitfulness.

1/9
This is not to denigrate video games as a casual hobby. As an obsession, however, it is crippling and numbing. It should not be a man's *main* hobby.

For better or worse, video games are the only reason we have as many literate, functional men as we do.

Why is that?

2/9
Aug 26 12 tweets 3 min read
10 truths every man should know before he becomes a father.

1. Being a father is more amazing than you can possibly imagine.

It is a gift and privilege, and you can't understand it until you become one. You aren't prepared for the joy it will bring. Image 2. Being a father is the biggest responsibility you can undertake.

Yes, it's amazing, but it's also a huge responsibility.

You are responsible for the formation of eternal souls. Nothing else comes close.

Stay humble.
Aug 14 5 tweets 2 min read
Always remember that George Washington and Robert E. Lee had more virtue, honor, and gravitas in their right thumbnail than most of their critics have in their entire bodies.

Given the obesity rate of modern America, that's saying something.
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To the critics, no person from history can be a hero unless that person makes a convenient mascot for "the current thing."

They inflate the word "hero" so it doesn't actually mean anything. Everybody is a hero. You didn't beep your horn when someone cut you off. You are a hero.
Aug 12 16 tweets 3 min read
5 lies about the patriarchy.

1. Patriarchy oppresses women

Strong men allow women to be innocent and soft.

Women can build and grow their household, protected behind strong walls of masculinity. Image Women can be vulnerable in a way that highlights their strengths.

They can remain innocent of some of the rough edges of the world, which allows them to focus on better, higher things.

Without this protection, women no longer have the luxury of being innocent and soft.
Aug 7 25 tweets 6 min read
24 lessons every father must teach his daughter.

1. You don't need to act like a man to be a strong woman.

Masculine strength looks different from feminine strength. Lean into your femininity and womanhood.

We don't need more third-rate men. We do need more first-rate women. Image 2. Your words have the power of life and death.

Your words matter. They can cut, and they can heal. They can build up your house or they can tear it down.

Do not whine. Do not nag. Do not gossip. Do not manipulate with guilt trips.

Encourage. Praise. Comfort.
Aug 6 5 tweets 1 min read
What if you suspect one of your kids has been lying to you?

The worst thing you can do is throw out baseless accusations.

Trust first. Use the words “I trust you” liberally. Reiterate how valuable that trust is. Image If you find proof of dishonesty, give them a chance to confess, and always reward that confession. There should still be a punishment for lying, but there should always be a reward for confession.
Aug 5 5 tweets 2 min read
You don’t need 6 years of higher education to be able to teach 3rd-grade math to your 7-year-old. Don't let "experts" shame you about teaching your own children.

There are two main qualifications for teaching your children.

1. That you love them. Image 2. Have some enthusiasm for what you are teaching.

If you aren’t excited about learning, they won’t be excited about learning.

What about knowledge? What about experience?

What they usually mean by "experience" is a Master’s Degree in glorified classroom management.
Aug 5 21 tweets 5 min read
20 more lessons every father must teach his son.

1. Don't worry about what strangers think. They aren't thinking about you at all.

Everyone is busy thinking about themselves. Except maybe your parents and grandparents. Which is why you should call them often. Image 2. When you make a principled stand, people will try to sabotage you.

Be prepared. Use it as an opportunity to prove that you meant what you said.

This is where the true test of courage lies. True leaders will be able to withstand this sabotage and affect real change.
Aug 1 11 tweets 3 min read
9 rules for raising creative, dangerous kids.

1. Send your children outdoors as much as possible.

Children should experience the joy of discovering a real, climbable tree.

Do not let TV be their supervisor.

Don't weigh children down with busy work and mountains of homework. Image 2. Leave children to themselves.

Never supervise and plan out their entire day.

They need to sit with potential boredom.

This is the only way to teach them to be independent, and independent children grow up to be unmanageable adults. They grow up to govern themselves.
Jul 31 20 tweets 5 min read
20 lessons every father must teach his son.

1. Don't correct people.

Let people be wrong. Pass on the opportunity to feel smart.

Unless they specifically ask you, or the matter directly concerns something under your responsibility, correcting someone has no upsides. Image 2. Correct people.

Sometimes, it's your responsibility to correct people, especially if you are in authority over them or if their foolishness might be contagious.

Be direct and clear. Don't be passive-aggressive. Be kind, but don't spare their feelings.
Jun 27 8 tweets 2 min read
When someone dies, thousands upon thousands of stories are lost.

Make sure that doesn't happen with your own father. Get him to answer these 30 questions and write them down.

1. Describe your father. What habits did he have?
2. Describe your mother. What habits did she have? 3. What's the best advice you got from your parents?
4. Do you know the origin of the family name?
5. How did your parents meet?
6. Did you lose any family members in a war?
7. If I had to know just one thing about our family, what would it be?
Jun 25 7 tweets 2 min read
Reading to your kids every night has a better chance of changing the world than anything else you do.

But only if you read great stuff that feeds their imagination.

Don't waste this precious time with Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Here are 24 recommendations that belong on your shelf: A father reading to his kids on the couch This list doesn't contain obvious selections like The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Those should already be on your shelf.

1. Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson
2. The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit
3. Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
Jun 20 14 tweets 3 min read
13 things every father must say to his daughter, over and over.

1. "You are beautiful."

If a girl doesn't think she is beautiful, the father is to blame.

A girl craves male attention and validation. She seeks it out. She desires it most from her father.

Don't starve her. A father sitting and talking with his young daughter 2. "I love you."

There should be no doubt about this fact. She should feel her father's love is as certain as the seasons, as predictable as the sun rising in the east.

Say it so often that she is drowning in the words. Couple this with plenty of hugs and physical affection.
Jun 18 13 tweets 3 min read
12 things every father must say to his son, over and over:

1. "I'm proud of you."

Saying this at the right moment can give a boy wings.

A boy who never hears this from his father will always be seeking approval from the wrong people and the wrong places. A father walking hand in hand with his young son down a path 2. "You are my son."

A father must lay claim to his son and let the boy know he belongs.

Many boys feel like they belong nowhere, and so they wander and look for alternatives outside the home. Give him the anchor he needs.
Jun 12 13 tweets 3 min read
Divorce means you lay a generational curse on your family until someone with more integrity comes along to stop the cycle.

Here are 10 uncomfortable truths about divorce: old hands reaching out of the ground in desperation 1. Divorce, whatever the reason, is never to be celebrated.

It is always a multi-layered, multi-generational tragedy.

It will affect your children no matter their age.

And it will affect your grandchildren.

And your great-grandchildren.

It flows downhill.
Jun 10 10 tweets 3 min read
Social skills are called "skills" because they are teachable. You can learn them and practice them.

And a Unicorn can teach you one of the most important social skills to master.

/ THREAD Image In the final book of The Chronicles of Narnia, one of the main characters is Jewel the Unicorn.

He is a brave and noble beast, a friend of the king, and a veteran of many wars.

Jewel gets stuck outside with a donkey who is, quite frankly, a complete idiot. Maybe even an "ass." Image
Jun 6 12 tweets 3 min read
"Remember that time when dad…"

When your kids are sitting around the table together someday, maybe after you are long gone, how will they finish that sentence?

And will they be smiling when they say it?

Here are 32 random things to do to break the pattern and create memories. Image 1. Let everyone buy their own box of cereal for a cereal night dinner. You aren't allowed to say no to anything.

2. Take everyone in their pajamas to get ice cream after bedtime.

3. Lay down some tarp and let your kids paint a single wall in the house with whatever they want.